As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion.
Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction.
New reviews are posted daily, but to search for earlier reviews please click on the Mystery People link below and select 'reviews' from the welcome page. This will display an alphabetic option for you to find the review you would like to read

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Wednesday, 13 February 2013

‘The Poachers Son’ by Paul Doiron

Published by Robinson,

17 January 2013.

ISBN: 978-1-78033-815-6

Here it is, still only January, and already I feel I've read
one of the very best crime novels of the year. THE POACHER'S SON is the first
in a series (at least one more is out there somewhere, with more to follow) set
in the vanishing rural beauty of north-west Maine. I can't see how award-winning Doiron
(himself a registered Game Warden) can hope to surpass this excellent novel in
a subsequent one.

The plot hinges on the events following the evening when Mike Bowditch, Maine
Game Warden, learns that his Vietnam-damaged father, Jack, stands accused of
murdering two men, one of them another Warden. Despite a dysfunctional
upbringing, in his father's harsh 'care', Mike knows that there is no way his
dad could have murdered anyone. Drunk, dissolute and irresponsible Jack may be,
but Mike knows he's not a killer. Jack goes on the run in the backwoods and at
the risk of losing the job he loves, Mike disobeys his superiors' orders to
leave the matter alone, and sets out track down his sorry excuse for a father,
in order to prove the man's
innocence and clear his name. The story moves forward in what at first seems to
be a fairly conventional manner, but gradually, as more information is
disclosed, the tension ratchets up and up. In the rural communities Doiron is
so eloquently describing, where moose and bear and deer roam freely, not only
does everyone have a gun but they are also prepared to use it. I can promise you
that the ending is a surprise.

I loved this book. I loved Doiron's lyrical descriptions of the natural beauty
of the wilderness, of forests and lakes, bogs and hills. Above and beyond the
plot is the ever-present sense that this idyll is about to be lost forever by
the greed of the logging companies who are threatening to destroy it. I loved,
too, the subtle delineation of the relationship between Jack and Mike, the
exasperated affection with which son views father and his longing for his dad's
love, and the very different father-figure presented by Charley Stevens and his
wife Ora. I loved the beautifully-rounded figures who move through this book,
each character, even the peripheral ones, perfectly realised, so that you would
recognise them immediately were you to meet them.

I am now Doiron's Number One fan, and will be getting hold of the second – and
third – books in this series as soon as I can.

------

Reviewer: Susan Moody

Paul Doiron is a
native of Maine, he attended Yale University,
where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative
writing from Emerson
College. He is the author
of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son,
which won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and
Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for
"Best Fiction of 2010. His second book in the Mike Bowditch series, Trespasser,
won the Maine
Literary Award for crime fiction, was an American Booksellers Association
Indie Bestseller and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane
narrative" by Booklist. His third novel in the series, Bad Little
Falls, will be published on August 7.He is the editor in chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine,
Down East Books, and DownEast.com. He is
a former member of the Maine Arts Commission and a current member of the Maine
Humanities Council. Paul is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly
fishing and outdoor recreation and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine.

Susan Moodywas born in Oxford is the principal nom de plumeof Susan
Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her
suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association,
served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers,
and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given
numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative
writing in England, France, Australia,
the USA and Denmark.In addition to her many stand alone books,
Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series
of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.

5 comments:

Wonderful review, Susan! Thank you! And his other books are even better. (Full disclosure: I'm Paul's wife, but I do read a LOT of suspense novels.) One little thing, though: that's not a photo of Paul (or, at least, not the Paul Doiron who wrote these books).

About Me

From an early age I have been a lover of crime fiction. Discovering like minded people at my first crime conference at St Hilda’s Oxford in 1997, I was delighted when asked to join a new group for the promotion of female crime writers. In 1998 I took over the running of the group, which I did for the next thirteen years.
During that time I organised countless events promoting crime writers and in particular new writers. But apart from the sheer joy of reading, ‘I actually love books, not just the writing, the plot or the characters, but the sheer joy of holding a book has never abated for me. The greatest gift of my life has been the ability to read'.